POSCO India scholarships for displaced students

Bhubaneshwar, Jan 31: POSCO India today awarded scholarships to 28 students from the families likely to be displaced in the proposed Rs 51,000 crore mega steel plant project in Orissa, the biggest FDI in the country.

As promised earlier, 28 students from the three gram panchayats of Nuagaon, Gada Kujanga and Dhinkia, falling under the proposed site, were awarded POSCO-TJ Park Foundation scholarship for the academic year 2007-2008 at a function in Kujang, located closed to the project site.

POSCO India executive director Uma Ballav Pattnaik gave away the citations at a ceremony in presence of other senior officials of the company.

The scholarship was offered to the students belonging to the economically backward sections from the plant site. While 10 such scholarships of 500 dollars each was awarded on the basis of pure merit, another 18 scholarships of 250 dollars each were awarded taking into account additional criteria of socio-economic disadvantages.

In December, 29 students from prominent universities of Orissa were awarded POSCO TJ Park Foundation Scholarships to encourage research, aid higher education and promote academic collaboration.

Mr Pattnaik said as a part of the long-term commitment of the company towards the people at the plant site, the initiative would go a long way in motivating the meritorious students to do well in future.

He announced that POSCO-India would launch more scholarships under its CSR programme for deserving students from the project site area to support higher studies after high school.

UNI